


Cat Sitter

by CheezPleez



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cute, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-22 06:08:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21070952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheezPleez/pseuds/CheezPleez
Summary: As much as Carol would love Goose to be everywhere with her people would love to get their hands on a flerken. She can;t leave her with just anyone and fury isn't too keen on letting her hang around him too much.  She is surprised when Goose chooses the winter soldier to look after her but she trusts Goose.





	Cat Sitter

“C...Carol...I...I don’t want it on me.” She plucked up Goose. “She has a name, it’s goose and she’s harmless well mostly harmless. Besides you are a super soldier you can handle an itty bitty flerken. Isn’t that right Goose.” She began to kiss and nuzzle the “cat” as she held it in her arms. He wasn’t fond of cats. He never liked them as a kid and his experience with T’Challa hadn't exactly made him favor them any more. He couldn’t remember but any time he saw a cat he got this feeling in the pit of his stomach and he needed to get away from it. 

“Give me your hand Barnes.” He held up his left hand. “No stupid the flesh hand.” She moved it over and placed it gently on Goose’s soft fur. She purred as soon as he touched her. “See she likes you. She’s a tough customer. Not even your Captain can seem to get close to her. He has tried and it’s kinda funny each time she lets him get a little close and each time he’s devastated when she slips away from him at the last second.” He smirked at the idea of Steve desperately wanting the cat to like him. As a child he was allergic to most everything so he wasn't around animals. Now that he wasn’t allergic anymore he couldn’t help but pet and love all over every animal he was near. “Look she seems nice it's just…. I’m not a cat kinda guy. I can’t remember why but something happened with me and cats. It's just…..they upset me and I don't know why. Can’t someone else keep an eye on her? Does it really have to be me?”

She handed him a duffel with several items to care for Goose. “It's gotta be you. She doesn't like anyone else at the tower and Fury won’t watch her after the eye thing.”  
“You mean she ...his eye? That's how that happened?” She nodded “Yup her scratches are very dangerous so be careful don't pester her. If she comes to you for attention don’t send her away. She chose you for a reason Barnes. I don’t know what it was but I’m sure it was a good one. It’s just for a month I just can’t bring her where I'm headed I can’t risk someone trying to catch her for black market sales.” He lay back on the bed and goose quickly hopped up and laid next to him. “She gets one can of chow a day she will beg for more don’t fall for it. She does not like to be tickled.pats on the head are fine. She will take shoes. Boots are her favorite so keep them locked up. Do not give her fish she will get sick and you do not want to clean up Flerken vomit. She does listen to commands so watch what you say around her. I gotta go. Your in charge Sgt. Stark knows how to get me if there is an absolute emergency but seriously she has to be on death's doorstep and trust me you will know. She will be a bit protective of you so warn people before they approach you.” She reached over and scratched under goose’s chin. “Be good for mama. Bucky is gonna take great care of you. I’m outta here Barnes.” 

She turned and left the two of them sitting in his room, He rolled onto his side to look at her. She seemed like a normal cat. “Why me huh? You sense I need something else to take care of since Steve seems mostly capable of handling himself? Well I got news for you. He can’t. Dipshit tried to beat Thanos bear handed. That serum enhanced a lot of things about him but it didn't give him any sense. I swear I will go grey soon enough and every grey hair will be Steve Rogers fault.” Goose make a little grumble noise as if to agree with him. “I see you have one of those too? Well then you know what I’m dealing with.” She snuggled closer against him. It had been a very very long time since he felt something warm and living up against him. He couldn't help but lean his head against her a little as her soft breath hit his cheek. “Cat” He mumbled as he fell asleep. 

He woke up to Friday informing him that pizza had been ordered and he was invited to partake. He looked around the room and saw no sign of Goose. He was still a bit groggy from the impromptu nap. He finally found her snuggled in his laundry pile. “Goose. Get outta there. Let’s get some chow.” Her head popped up and she quickly leapt over to him and in a single bound scaled his back and wrapped herself around his neck. Remembering Carols warning about moving her he sighed. “Fine but you gotta get down when i fix your food.” 

He made his way upstairs to the dining area Goose still secure around his neck. When he walked in Steve looked at Goose. "Cat!" He reached his hand out but Bucky quickly backed up. "Hold your horses there. Don't touch the cat. If she freaks out she's wrapped around my neck and I don't think stark wants me to bleed out in the kitchen." Steve rolled his eyes "c'mon Buck it's just a kitty cat. " he reached his hand out again and Goose spit digging her claws in Buckys skin. "Steve leave her be." He put his hands up and backed off. "Fine. Im backin' off."

He went to the counter and began to open the can of chow Carol left. Goose quickly moved to the counter to supervise. He read Carols note on how to fix it. He sat the bowl down on the floor and joined everyone at the table. Rhody passed him a couple of slices of pizza. " so you are the cat sitter now huh?" Bucky nodded as he took a bite from two slices stacked together. "well that's top level clearance in Carol's world. If goose don't approve then she don't either."  
" I Thought you hated cats Buck. Why you watching Goose?" He shrugged. "Carol said she picked me. I dont know its kinda hard to tell Carol no. She's a bit…..aggressive. She didn't exactly give me a choice either she just plopped her in my room and left." 

They heard the elevator open and something skitter on the tile. " oh no.. that sounds like…."  
"Mr. Stark? I found another dog. He followed me here ..." Peter poked his head in. " hey is Mr. stark around? He told me if I found any strays he'd check em for microchips." As he said this a large German shepherd rounded the corner. Bucky's eyes widened when he saw it and next thing he was up on the counter trying to get away from the dog. He wasn't making a sound but they could see the horror etched on his face. 

Peter could easily read the room. " oh god Mr. Barnes. I didn't realize the dog would be a problem I'm gonna take him down to the training arena and wait for Mr. Stark. I'm so sorry.” Steve quickly escorted Peter and the dog away. Bucky was still on the counter his eyes locked on the spot where the dog had stood. He was now clutching Goose who was gently kneading at his arm. Sam walked over cautiously. " Bucky? Hey its ok man. The dogs gone. It’s gone. You can come off the counter." He helped Bucky off the counter and into a chair. " you wanna talk about it? Everyone has triggers. Mine's fireworks. Wanna talk about the dog?" He shook his head "No. Not gonna talk about that." Sam nodded in agreement. " ok that's cool. If you want to i'm always here. So much for not liking cats. You scooped her up without thinking." Bucky rubbed his hand through her fur. "Good cat"

Once all the dog excitement was done with Bucky ate and went back to his room. There were memories that came back that he wished stayed buried. He remembered the dogs. Beaten, starved, trained to be mean. When those dogs were loose no one was safe. He remembered his first encounter with them. After the hydra version of the serum was given to him they had him run an obstacle course. He reached the end and vaulted over the fence to make a break. Those dogs were on him in seconds. His heart skipped a beat every time he saw one. Even in his winter soldier days he wasn't immune. It became a punishment for him. They could get him to behave if there was a dog there. Goose pressed herself against him. Her purrs vibrating across his body. She was warm and safe. He could get used to her.

Over the next week it became a pretty common site to see Bucky skulking around the tower with Goose perched on his shoulders. Peter felt awful about the dog incident and wanted to apologize but Steve and Sam both discouraged him from bringing it up again. “Kid it’s ok. He knows you didn’t mean any harm. Bucky has a lot of triggers we still don’t know yet. He doesn’t always react the same way either. Sometimes it’s a bit more violent. It’s best to leave him be and when he is ready he will come to you.” He shrugged “Yea i just feel really crummy about it. The dog didn’t even have a chip either I brought him here for almost nothing. We took him to a shelter but it would have been nice to see if someone was missing him and take him home myself. We did check in with the shelter he was claimed so I mean yay dog went home.” Steve patted his shoulder. “I’m sure whoever he belongs with is grateful that a friendly neighborhood spider-man took care of him.” 

Bucky walked into the kitchen and nodded at them and began to fix a cup of coffee Goose was turned as if she was watching his back as he did so. As he moved around the kitchen she adjusted her body so that she was watching his blind spots no matter what. “I think I see why she picked him.” Peter whispered quietly “He needs her” He had a big dumb smile on his face as he watched them. “Well I gotta go. See ya when I see ya.” He bounded out of the window, which at this point wasn’t the weirdest exit to expect from him. By the time they turned back to Bucky he and Goose were gone. “I’m worried about him Sam. Since the dog thing he only seems to come out of his room to eat and feed Goose. I know we gotta give him space but there’s gotta be a breaking point.”  
“Look I get it and you are right but he’s eating and he has left his room. We don’t worry until he stops coming out. You saw his face. Whatever that dog reminded him of seemed to be pretty nasty We just gotta keep an eye on him. No pressure he’ll talk when he’s ready.”

Bucky sat in his room with Goose on his lap. He had the window open a bit enjoying the fresh air that came in. Goose kneaded and purred occasionally rubbing her head against his book. He was trying to catch up on things just like Steve but he found movies were a bit much. When he was “younger” movies weren’t more than an hour. Now people sat for upwards of three sometimes more if they were marathoning a series. He preferred catching up on books and occasionally cartoons. Those were short he could go at his own pace. He found himself putting them on in the background while he was doing other things. He had become partial to quiet children's cartoons. His favorite if he could really call it that was Oswald a quiet show about an octopus living a quiet life in a quiet little town. Goose seemed to approve too. 

He wasn’t sure why but something felt off in his room suddenly. He sat down his book and looked around the room. He could hear something moving around but it was faster than he was. He finally pinpointed it underneath the bed. Realizing it was reacting to his movements he tried something. “Goose get it girl.” She quickly darted under the bed and returned carrying a small mechanical bug of some sort. “Friday is Stark buggin my room now?” He waited for Friday to respond but heard nothing. “Friday?” Still nothing. Goose began to growl. “Yeaaaaa this could be bad.” He found his door locked leaving his only exit the window. He looked out. No ledge no sill. Nothing for him to grab onto. Phone, gotta call someone. He quickly fumbled around the buttons and called Tony since hey his building. “Stark, your building is holding me hostage. My door is locked Friday isn’t listening to me and to top it all off Goose caught a bug in my room. A surveillance bug in case you were confused.” Goose was now sitting on the bed her back arched growling toward the door. It was then that the TV in his room changed channels. He could hear the words before they even started. “No no no no. He was trying to desperately drown them out.” 

When they finally had Hulk rip the door open they found Bucky sitting on his chair clutching Goose for dear life quietly muttering into her fur as she purred into his ear. “Barnes? Ya good? We’re gonna walk in the room.” Tony and Sam carefully stepped forward. Goose let out a shrill little meow that got his attention. “Oh...you got the door open.” He looked as if he had run a marathon “What happened? Where’s your tv?” Bucky nodded towards the window. “I had to toss it.” Tony looked out the window to see the tv smashed through the roof of his car. “Aw come on I just got that roof fixed. Wanna go through what went down?” Goose hopped on the bed and hacked up the bug they found crawling around his room. “She helped me catch that. I don’t know how it got in the building but there it is. I heard it crawling around and about the time i found it that's when the door locked and and….. “ His face drained of color. Sam sat down on the bed. “I take it someone tried the code words again. Good news is they didn’t work. I can’t imagine it was easy though. Hard thing to ignore 50 years of control. I bet this bug got in here on that dog. It didn’t have time to hop off once it recognized Bucky and it spent the last couple days looking around for him. I mean Parker had him in and out so fast once he saw it was an issue. Seems like too much of a coincidence that a dog that scares you half to death ends up here a few days ago and then this.” Tony was still looking out the window at his car. “Friday from now on everyone and everything gets scanned also can ya call the tow guy again.”  
“I’ll pay to fix the car somehow” He shook his head “You really are the perfect friend for him. No I have more than enough money to fix it. I would rather you have trashed the tv and my car than undid every good thing Shurri was able to do for you. Looks like your friend did a good job keeping an eye on you. Friday let's also order a new tv for this room. I do have to thank you for this. I see that there is at least one fatal flaw in my building. There needs to be manual overrides on ALL doors that are not meant to keep people in.I promise this won’t happen again.” 

The next few weeks flew by for them. Goose was only ever separate from Bucky when she was eating. He had mentioned only once that she insisted she sit near the bathtub while he was in it and she had no qualms about entering the shower. It was clear the new companion was making Steve a little jealous but he didn’t have much time for that. He and Nat were carefully taking out the ones that sent the bug. These ones weren’t being brought in. he was Nat's cover and he turned a blind eye while she did what she did best. She made them disappear. When Carol returned for Goose, Bucky was actually sad to see them leave. He gave her a hug and handed her over. “She’s a good cat er flerken. If you ever need someone to watch her again...” Carol took Goose and laughed, “I will keep you in mind Sgt. Maybe we can drop by for a visit some time. Till then thanks” She collected the duffel and left. Bucky couldn’t help but sulk a little bit with her being gone. “good cat.”


End file.
